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No Man's Sky for Consoles
- Thread starter gkarris
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The hype is so high for this game, I'm worried that anything less than excellent from the reviewers will be deemed a disappointment..
This whole thing is: it's a niche game, absolute space exploration.. and started by a small team
The idea, theme, brand has gained so much traction since - everyone's expectations are sky high..
I'll be happy with just the exploration
This whole thing is: it's a niche game, absolute space exploration.. and started by a small team
The idea, theme, brand has gained so much traction since - everyone's expectations are sky high..
I'll be happy with just the exploration
Whether the game is good or not, it's nice to see developers embrace this type of game. I hope it's really good but if it's not, it will open the door for someone else to do it right.
I just saw this article on Ars which could pose an issue for the developers.
The patented “superformula” that could cause a legal headache for No Man’s Sky
The patented “superformula” that could cause a legal headache for No Man’s Sky
On the one hand, I get people being critical of Star Citizen being delayed, but on the other hand, I don't get it...
They are putting out alpha versions you can play. And, instead of rushing to meet a deadline, and either a) releasing something buggy, or b) cutting out a big thing altogether, they are working to put in as many features as possible.
I haven't been paying too much attention to it over the last (gulp) 18 months...I just couldn't handle hearing about things, but then having to wait. Besides, my GTX 660 graphics card was wheezing and coughing trying to keep up with things, but now that there is a "cheap" 1060 coming that will really push the pixels, I'm thinking of getting back into the alpha versions of Star Citizen.
My decision is to get Everspace and pay for Beta PC access, especially when I learned that an XBox One version is coming out:
This my kind of game, a "Space Shooter" and want to use my time and new "Console" PC to help contribute...
Will get No Man's Sky, a "Space Exploration" game when it is around $22 new or used...
Just watching the vids doesn't give the the "adrenaline rush" that Everspace does...
Please put your reviews for No Man's Sky here when it comes out soon!
This my kind of game, a "Space Shooter" and want to use my time and new "Console" PC to help contribute...
Will get No Man's Sky, a "Space Exploration" game when it is around $22 new or used...
Just watching the vids doesn't give the the "adrenaline rush" that Everspace does...
Please put your reviews for No Man's Sky here when it comes out soon!
If they stopped trying to add the kitchen sink to SC, I wouldn't be so doubtful about it. As a PMP, I can certainly understand not rushing to meet a deadline, but they'd never meet any deadline if they keep pushing the schedule to the right due to adding additional features. I'd rather the game be complete and not rushed (hello, Ubisoft, EA). But it's gone too far at this point.
I followed the game for years and then gave up (and I backed it). Stretch goals are one thing, but it's become absurd how many times they open the lid and add more ingredients. Even employees are striking out against them. There's been quite a few articles written about the money being nearly gone and how mismanaged things are there.
FWIW, I hope it is a great game. I've enjoyed Roberts' other games, and we need more of these games.
The thing with Star Citizen is the super-realism they are shooting for. For example, you can't just "buy a new weapon" - you have to go to a Weapons Dealer, and essentially interact with a NPC dealer to buy one - way too much for me.
Then it goes on from being "a one time purchase" to having to buy "insurance" for your ship. I can see if you loose you ship in a battle, but I guess people can "steal it". So, in an era of Interstellar Travel, there's no Lock & Key or Pilot Authentication Systems on this ships?
I bought Elite on the XB1 and tbh the realism ends up being a major bummer especially when you just want to play star trek and explore the universe, but end up spending 95% of your time micromanaging junk and staring at long stretches of nothingness followed by 5% of time engaged in dog fights chasing tiny cross hairs on the screen. It's just not very enjoyable for me and after 5 hours of really trying to get into the game, I haven't bothered playing in months.
It's very dull imho. The space fights become an exercise of chase the cursor and an exercise in tedium.
Well that's too bad...I bought it, well I guess pledged for it, before it was released, and still (18-19 months later?) haven't even double clicked on the installer.
I always find space combat to be either really good or really bad (usually, I just get creamed). The old X-Wing and TIE-fighter games always felt like I was stationary, and just spinning around in a circle, trying to chase things, but never quite yanking the cursor to the right position...just like you mentioned. Blah!
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The thing with Star Citizen is the super-realism they are shooting for. For example, you can't just "buy a new weapon" - you have to go to a Weapons Dealer, and essentially interact with a NPC dealer to buy one - way too much for me.
Then it goes on from being "a one time purchase" to having to buy "insurance" for your ship. I can see if you loose you ship in a battle, but I guess people can "steal it". So, in an era of Interstellar Travel, there's no Lock & Key or Pilot Authentication Systems on this ships?
Immersion is a really tricky thing, imo. On the one hand, you want to simulate as many things from "real life" as possible, but on the other hand, nobody is going to want to participate in a game that requires virtual teeth flossing or virtual toilet scrubbing. (And if that's what you really want in a game, I apologize, I didn't mean any slight...).
On the other hand, there have been a couple of games where I did incredibly tedious things, for a limited time, just because the game really, really grabbed me in some way. My best example: in Morrowind, dammit, I wanted to be stealthy, pick locks, and steal things, so I jumped through all sorts of hoops to learn a lock spell, so I could lock a chest, pick the lock, then just cast the spell to lock it again, so I could pick the lock, ad infiinitum, all just to gain the experience points and raise my lock picking skill (to 100). I must have repeated these steps at least ... 500? a 1000 times? And tedious as hell, but (as I said), dammit, I really wanted to be able to pick locks in that game.
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I guess there's reviews of some already leaked PC copies...
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/08/no-mans-sky-fans-are-having-a-meltdown-over-leaked-copies/
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/08/no-mans-sky-fans-are-having-a-meltdown-over-leaked-copies/
Well, I guess I made up my mind not to get it. My library of unplayed games is so huge already...and then I cracked open the plastic wrap of Xenoblade Chronicles X, and totally unexpectedly (I am *not* a JRPG fan, by any measure) I really like the game, and have gotten fairly immersed into it. Yeah, it's nuts in some ways and over the top in others, but I just love playing open world games and being able to explore. Maybe I'm dementing, but even the little annoying alien/comic relief party companion (a gimmick I normally despise) doesn't bug me.
In any event, at this point, if No Man's Sky is any good, then I won't mind waiting a bit longer, and not having any of the pre-order special ship drive stuff, and I won't have a problem grinding my way up from a non-interplanetary ship to something that can go interstellar...and if it is $20 or less in 6 months, then so much the better.
In any event, at this point, if No Man's Sky is any good, then I won't mind waiting a bit longer, and not having any of the pre-order special ship drive stuff, and I won't have a problem grinding my way up from a non-interplanetary ship to something that can go interstellar...and if it is $20 or less in 6 months, then so much the better.
This....
Wii U?
I'm not at all a JRPG fan either, but this game looks kinda cool...
Ok, here's my quick take (and then I'll post the best review I've seen so far):
1. Sci-Fi -ish RPG, takes place on a single planet in an open world format. Lotsa places to explore, stuff you can see now but can't get to right away because you can't fly (later you can) or the monsters ("indigens") are way too powerful
2. Interesting battle mechanics (this worried me initially)-- you can shoot or use swords, but the emphasis is on your team...stuff they do will make some of your attacks more powerful at certain times during the battle. It is over the top and too much to understand at once, but you do eventually figure most of it out, and other bits are just a Google search away...
3. An interesting story, nothing new or revolutionary, but just set up and executed well. A lot of missions are "affinity missions" which you undertake to get to know a certain team member better...these turn out (imo) to be well-disguised "fetch" missions that don't seem as boring as they could be otherwise
4. Graphics are fairly decent, but some amount of pop-up. Oh, and the game is so big, I have found it necessary to fast-travel, which I typically never do (even in Skyrim, I would run all over the place).
I'm 36 hours in (been playing over 2 weeks) and at level 23...got a ways to go, but levels are capped at 60, for some reason.
The best review I've seen so far (and it is a long one, but goes into great detail, and I agree with a lot of what they say) is at
http://tay.kinja.com/xenoblade-chronicles-x-the-tay-review-1752717348
1. Sci-Fi -ish RPG, takes place on a single planet in an open world format. Lotsa places to explore, stuff you can see now but can't get to right away because you can't fly (later you can) or the monsters ("indigens") are way too powerful
2. Interesting battle mechanics (this worried me initially)-- you can shoot or use swords, but the emphasis is on your team...stuff they do will make some of your attacks more powerful at certain times during the battle. It is over the top and too much to understand at once, but you do eventually figure most of it out, and other bits are just a Google search away...
3. An interesting story, nothing new or revolutionary, but just set up and executed well. A lot of missions are "affinity missions" which you undertake to get to know a certain team member better...these turn out (imo) to be well-disguised "fetch" missions that don't seem as boring as they could be otherwise
4. Graphics are fairly decent, but some amount of pop-up. Oh, and the game is so big, I have found it necessary to fast-travel, which I typically never do (even in Skyrim, I would run all over the place).
I'm 36 hours in (been playing over 2 weeks) and at level 23...got a ways to go, but levels are capped at 60, for some reason.
The best review I've seen so far (and it is a long one, but goes into great detail, and I agree with a lot of what they say) is at
http://tay.kinja.com/xenoblade-chronicles-x-the-tay-review-1752717348
It seems this review is rather negative, seems like a rather expansive open world, but with some negative issues
Biggest issue with Xenoblade Chronicles X for me is the mission structure and character delivery. Its just so bland and generic, exacerbated by the really poor character models both in your party and NPC's throughout the world. Seriously the mission structure is really poorly laid out and mosty consists of fetch quests.
The world (landscapes) itself is great, the animals and wildlife really make it pop, but for a game that is meant to be about giant mechs, and that you don't get them until 20-30 hours in, and up to that point you have to meander on fetch quests from a horrific mission management base system and each essentially involve, run here, kill, fetch, go back. Get next mission. I'm really disappointed in it. There is no feeling of being immersed in the world via story or character interaction. That narrative just doesn't exist.
It's a shame, the original xenoblade chronicles on wii is IMHO a better game than X, even if it is far uglier.
_____
But anyway back on to No Mans Sky. I'm avoiding all the leaks and videos. I want to keep the experience to myself and looking forward to it.
Yeah - we have really waited long enough for the game to go and spoil it now. I'm keeping my expectations in check, but I just want a game that leads me on an adventure of my own creation - and that seems hopefully what it will deliver.
Just read the review...he gave it an "8-Great" overall, so it wasn't *that* negative, although he certainly seemed to pile all the negative points up in the beginning of the review.
I guess I would just say:
1. I didn't play the first Xenoblade Chronicles...people seemed to really like that story, and those people seem disappointed by the story in X. Was the first one open world? or was it more linear, in terms of being told what to do and where to go?
2. The negatives he mentioned didn't bother me (or haven't yet, 36 hours in). And yes, it is complicated, but I don't mind trying to figure some things out. There are some good message boards where you can get help, w/o spoilers. One of the top things everybody repeats is "Read the manual" which, unfortunately, is only in electronic format, on-line
3. The one negative mentioned which I agree with, are the character models. It is like they tried to make 2D cartoony anime characters into 3D models, and they look plasticy. But nowhere near as bad/ugly as the character models in Oblivion...
4. Regarding the soundtrack, there is one track in the New LA area that is *awful*...and you wind up spending a lot of time in New LA, unfortunately. But the rest are fairly decent (so far).
Addressing the story point more, my opinion is that they did a good job of providing a huge open world, but with also a) a large background story overall, and b) smaller story "chapters" to provide a more immediate structure, but in both cases you get to make a lot of choices about what and were to go do. And there has been a plot-twist or two, already (just finished Chapter 5).
Make no mistake, there is a lot of grinding combat to go through, you start off pretty weak, and there are insanely strong monsters all over the place. I haven't gotten to the mech combat yet, but I feel like I've already gotten my money's worth (interesting to note, some reviewers complain about the relative "vanilla" flavor of mech combat vs. the more specialized ground combat...).
The video in the link was fairly critical, while he was very positive on a number of things, it was very critical of other parts of the game.
First was far more linear story driven.Just read the review...he gave it an "8-Great" overall, so it wasn't *that* negative, although he certainly seemed to pile all the negative points up in the beginning of the review.
I guess I would just say:
1. I didn't play the first Xenoblade Chronicles...people seemed to really like that story, and those people seem disappointed by the story in X. Was the first one open world? or was it more linear, in terms of being told what to do and where to go?
2. The negatives he mentioned didn't bother me (or haven't yet, 36 hours in). And yes, it is complicated, but I don't mind trying to figure some things out. There are some good message boards where you can get help, w/o spoilers. One of the top things everybody repeats is "Read the manual" which, unfortunately, is only in electronic format, on-line
3. The one negative mentioned which I agree with, are the character models. It is like they tried to make 2D cartoony anime characters into 3D models, and they look plasticy. But nowhere near as bad/ugly as the character models in Oblivion...
4. Regarding the soundtrack, there is one track in the New LA area that is *awful*...and you wind up spending a lot of time in New LA, unfortunately. But the rest are fairly decent (so far).
Addressing the story point more, my opinion is that they did a good job of providing a huge open world, but with also a) a large background story overall, and b) smaller story "chapters" to provide a more immediate structure, but in both cases you get to make a lot of choices about what and were to go do. And there has been a plot-twist or two, already (just finished Chapter 5).
Make no mistake, there is a lot of grinding combat to go through, you start off pretty weak, and there are insanely strong monsters all over the place. I haven't gotten to the mech combat yet, but I feel like I've already gotten my money's worth (interesting to note, some reviewers complain about the relative "vanilla" flavor of mech combat vs. the more specialized ground combat...).